he companies were filled, Mercy begged the
Emperor to give them to him, and he actually obtained them; so that the
Duke had not the appointment of a single officer.

The poor Duchess of Mecklenbourg, the wife of Christian Louis, was a very
good woman when one was thoroughly acquainted with her. She told me the
whole history of her intrigue with Bernstorff. She regulated her
household very well, and had always two carriages. She did not affect
the splendour of a sovereign; but she kept up her rank better than the
other Duchesses, and I liked her the better for this. The husband,
Christian Louis of Mecklenbourg, was a notable fool. He one day demanded
an audience of the King, under the pretence of having something of
importance to say to him. Louis XIV. was then more than forty years old.
When the Duke found himself in the King's presence, he said to him,
"Sire, you seem to me to have grown." The King laughed, and said,
"Monsieur, I am past the age of growing."--"Sire," rejoined the Duke,
"do you know everybody says I am very much like you, and quite as
good-looking as you are?"--"That is very probable," said the King, still
laughing. The audience was then finished, and the Duke went away. This
fool could never engage his brother-in-law's favour, for M. de Luxembourg
had no regard for him.

When the Queen had the government of the country, all the females of the
Court, even to the very servants, became intriguers. They say it was the
most ridiculous thing in the world to see the eagerness with which women
meddled with the Queen-mother's regency. At the commencement she knew
nothing at all. She made a present to her first femme de chambre of five
large farms, upon which the whole Court subsisted. When she went to the
Council to propose the affair, everybody laughed, and she was asked how
she proposed to live. She was quite astonished when the thing was
explained to her, for she thought she had only given away five ordinary
farms. This anecdote is very true and was related to me by the old
Chancellor Le Tellier, who was present at the Council. She is said often
to have laughed as she confessed her ignorance. Many other things of a
similar nature happened during the regency.

There is a Bishop of a noble family, tolerably young but very ugly, who
was at first so devout that he thought of entering La Trappe; he wore his
hair combed down straight, and dared not look a woman in the face.
Having learned that i